There is one known record for George Trumpor in Culpeper Co., Virginia. This was at the Hebron Church where he and his wife Margaretha had Andreas baptized 17 Nov 1776. The sponsors for the boy were George Utz, Jr. and his wife. George Utz, Jr., was the son of Michael Utz, the son of the 1717 immigrant George Utz. The wife of George, Jr., was Margaret Weaver, the daughter of Peter Weaver, the young 1717 immigrant. Margaret Utz is said to be the daughter of George, the son of the immigrant George Utz. Therefore, George, Jr. was a cousin of Margaret and a logical choice as a sponsor. But none of this furnishes any information about George Trumpor who remained a mystery.
Fortunately, Marge Willhite provided information on George Trumpor whose family is more commonly known as Trumbo. The family starts with Andrew Trumbore (Drumbore, Trombor, Trumbourger, Trombauer, etc.) who emigrated from the Rhenish Palatinate to Pennsylvania between 1724 and 1727. Branches of the family moved to Virginia (by 1748 Jacob Trumbo was delinquent in his taxes in Augusta Co.) in an area which is now Pendleton Co., West Virginia. This is an area to the west of the Shenandoah Valley and separated from it by the Shenandoah Mountains. Fort Seybert was a prominent early feature which can still be located.
Jacob and Mary Trumbo were the parents of at least seven children: Elizabeth, who married Mathias Rheinhart; Andrew, who married Margaret Harness; John, who married Mary Custer; George, of this commentary; Dorothy; Margaret; and Jacob, Jr., who married Elizabeth Lair and Hannah Hawes Cowger. The Trumbo family history gives the wife of George as Margaret Rockefeller Oats. It is clear that Oats should be identified with Utz.
The name Rockefeller has a Germanna origin also. Margaret Utz was the granddaughter of Anna Maria Blankenbaker and Thomas Kaifer. Written in German script, the names Blankenbaker (as it may have been spelled then) and Rockefeller have a similarity. In the face of uncertainty it is not unusual for a descendant to make the choice which seems to have the higher status.
As a consequence of this information, we now know that one branch of our Germanna families descends through the Trumbo family. And in the Trumbo family, they have a better understanding of their heritage.
How did George Trumbo meet Margaret Utz? Stories written about life in this region mention that the men went across the mountains on business. Or, we have Rev. Schwarbach of the Hebron church who traveled a hundred miles reaching a very dispersed congregation. Maybe he spread the information about Margaret. Or church members from the Valley and environs came to Hebron. The important point is that spouses did not always come from the farm next door, even a lot of them did.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.